SH2 Knife In The Dark
by Lamby
Summary: Shades of Heroes Series Part 2: Scattered in every direction, the X-Men have to fend for themselves. Needless to say, some of them are better at survival than others. AU to X3.
1. Chapter 1

#Shades of Heroes Series Part 2: Scattered in every direction, the X-Men have to fend for themselves. Needless to say, some of them are better at survival than others. #

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 01**

"This furball even worse that you Wolverine! How come he jus' keeps comin?"

"I think you annoyed him Gumbo. Funny how you manage to piss people off within seconds of meetin' 'em."

"You hilarious mon Ami." Gambit shook his head and jumped back quickly. Just in time, as at that instant Sabretooth pounced to land just where the Cajun had been. Gambit kicked the cat-like monstrosity in the jaw, then again about the head, before jumping out of the way so that Logan could pelt his foe across the spine with what looked like a rather large boulder. Sabretooth howled.

They were in New Mexico, squabbling with a rogue Sabretooth just because they could. Well, that and to hopefully draw the anti-mutant military contingent away from Westchester. Hopefully then Professor Xavier could arrange the disappearance of the mansion's pupils and the rest of the X-Men. Right now, Wolverine's super-hearing was already picking up the sound of the rotors of seven or eight military choppers. It was about time. Briefly Logan glanced about. Even for the middle of nowhere, there were bombsites less destroyed than this.

"Take cover!" Gambit yelled, pulling his hands back from a fat cactus and diving away. Logan exchanged a glance with Sabretooth, who didn't seem to understand, and then dove behind another boulder. The cactus suddenly bloomed orangey-pink, then exploded in a rain of plant parts and spines. Sabretooth yelped again, but Logan was distracted by a change in direction and speed of the helicopters.

"We're gonna have company!" He called out, letting his claws slide through his knuckles and jumping Sabretooth from behind. "Why…won't…you…just…stay…down?" he asked the Brotherhood of Mutants crony, with each word jamming his claws into the other man's flesh. Sabretooth roared and shook himself and tried to grab Logan off his back. He failed, and when Gambit launched a charged playing card at Sabretooth's soft belly, it was one hit too much for the cat-like mutant. He dropped to the floor and was still.

"Hey, watch what you're doin' with those cards Gumbo!" Logan protested. "I had him under control." Wolverine spoke too soon, as he felt his feet torn out from under him by Sabretooth. He slipped and hit the dirt, bouncing his head on a rock. The clash of an adimantium skull on brittle stone clanged through the air.

"Logan!" Remy yelped, but the feral man was still and didn't reply. "Oh now you gone an' done it Sabretooth. The deuces are really wild now…" The Cajun ran forwards in a wide sweep, as Sabretooth drew himself up to his impressive full height again. Quickly Gambit reached in his trench coat for more ammo. The cards charged; he launched them in rapid succession, every one hitting home. They blasted holes in Sabretooth's chest even as the stab wounds in his back were starting to heal. Still if Sabretooth's healing factor was kicking in, that meant Logan's couldn't be far behind.

"Gwrft!" Sabretooth gargled as Logan jumped him as soon as his back was to the feral X-Man. Quicker than lightning Wolverine drew his claws across Sabretooth's throat, letting blood gush over his furry body. Twirling his staff in one hand Gambit smacked the weapon out and across Sabretooth's jaw. Sabretooth hit the dirt, twitched once, and was still. Wolverine and Gambit looked at each other and grinned.

"Well that was refreshin'." Gambit drawled. "How long we got?"

"'Bout five minutes." Wolverine replied, looking to the skies.

"Plenty o' time, mon Ami. How 'bout a game of cards while we wait?"

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"Oh Scott!"

The fearless leader of the X-Men found himself swamped by a little round woman in a floral frock and pinafore. Her hair was grey and tied in a knot at the back of her neck. She wore expensive pearls around her neck that had been a present from her only daughter many years before.

"Hi Mrs Grey…" Scott greeted Jean's Mom gently, patting her chubby shoulder. "Dr Grey, how are you both." A tearful man in a smart tweed jacket joined the embrace then, and Scott found himself almost smothered. Behind him, someone snickered into a friend's ear.

"Have you ever seen Cyclops look this terrified?"

"No way Dice, not even when he found out he had to take you into hiding with the rest of us…"

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"Run children!" Storm called out over the blizzard she had created about her. "Run!"

"You can't hold them off on your own!" Tabitha objected, Iceman's college friend taking her stand by Ororo's side. The small town streets were being filled rapidly with men in uniforms taking their orders from the mutant hating General Kincaid.

"I'll be fine Boom Boom, please just get them to your safe house!"

Tabitha didn't believe the X-Man for a second, but she had little choice. The bunker and underground passage was still half a mile away and Boom Boom was the only one who knew where they were or where they went. Squeezing Ororo's shoulder in a gesture of support, Tabitha scooped up the group's smallest child and shoed them off the streets down the relative safety of an alleyway. She didn't see Storm knock down eight men with a lightning bolt, only to be captured when a gas grenade went off at her feet, sending her into unconsciousness…


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**A/N: **To Bizzy, thanks so much for your review. I would have replied directly, but you hadn't signed in :-(. Anyway, no Rogue in this one I'm afraid. In the past I kept making her cry, so my co-author and good friend Corrinth made me write her out! I hope there's still enough action for you though… Let me know what you think. Luv Lamby

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 02**

"General Kincaid, how nice of you to visit," Charles Xavier did not mean a single word he said, and Kincaid knew it. That was why he laughed as he strode into the mansion that had become Xavier's prison.

"How are you Charles? And that feisty daughter of yours?" Kincaid grimaced in the direction of Ilehana Xavier, Charles' only daughter. She pointedly looked away out of the window, the collar she wore round her neck that kept both telepaths from using their powers bleeping quietly.

"What are you doing here? Do you really need to come and gloat quite so often?" Charles questioned from behind his desk.

"We have the Weather Witch," Kincaid was through pretending to be pleasant. He loathed these people with everything he was. "Though the children she was defending have managed to escape us for now."

"Oh Ororo…" Charles gasped, "What have you done with her?"

"She is at a specially designed holding facility Charles. I told you, I will not make martyrs of you until the outcome of this war is decided. We are ready for all the X-Men, and we have methods to stop them from using their powers." Kincaid smiled coldly. "You know it was one of your family that gave us the information to build the facility."

"Gambit, what have you done…" Xavier moaned as his daughter came to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Gambit?" Kincaid spat the name. "We couldn't even get that scoundrel to answer a question straight. We still can't figure out how he managed to get away. Not that it matters, we have a GRSO unit on his tail, along with that charming feral you keep around here. Must be a relief, not having to change the Wolverine's litter tray every five minutes."

"If not Gambit, then who?" Xavier asked, taking his daughter's hand in his to stop Ilehana from attacking Kincaid for insulting Logan. "You owe me that much, General."

"Your own brother of course Charles. When you abandoned him in the care of the government, did you not think he might well end up being used against you? His recent release was no accident…" Kincaid returned, watching as a look of comprehension flitted across Xavier's face. They had been set up from the start.

"Look, I am willing to make a deal." Kincaid continued. "Storm will be allowed to return to the mansion under house arrest, much the same as the two of you, in return for one thing. I want to know where the other X-Men are heading."

"I can't do that." Xavier replied definitely.

"Fine." Kincaid spat. "I just wanted to keep you apprised of the situation. Hear me well Charles, the days of the X-Men are numbered."

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The airport terminal was chaotic in the worst way possible. The lone woman walked through the crowds as of they weren't there, expecting them to move out of her way. She didn't look at any of them. Her cold grey eyes were always fixed on a point in the middle distance. They glanced at her apprehensively, before looking the other way. More than once she heard the muttered insult of "Mutie…" Dell Tucker didn't let it bother her, other than to make the corner of her mouth twitch into a brief smile. Besides, she couldn't worry about these pathetic individuals. She had an appointment to keep.

She was a daunting looking young woman. Her physique was one of someone who often worked out, who took pride in pushing her body further and further. Her long chestnut hair was braided into a million tiny plaits, each one finished off with a tiny silver bead. The beads clattered against each other as she walked, their music melancholy. She wore a long black overcoat that stretched to her calves, teamed with stout black boots. Her left ear had silver hoops all the way up, but her right only had one silver stud. The belt on her trousers was black leather, the buckle solid silver in the shape of a circle scored through with an X. Her hands were gloveless, tattooed from wrist downwards with oriental dragons in fine black lines.

Stifle walked around the corner into the arrivals lounge of Manchester Airport just as the woman she was here to meet stepped through customs. Like Stifle, the newcomer wore an X-logo belt plain for all to see. Rather than rushing to greet this missionary from Xavier, Dell hung back. Somehow, she was disappointed in the appearance of this X-Man all the way from the US. Stifle wanted to clarify to herself why that was before she made any further moves. She would not be above turning and leaving the stranger right here if she decided it was more trouble than it was worth to take her on.

The newcomer was smaller and younger than Stifle. She wore her long red curls loose about her shoulders and down her back. Despite the long flight, her make-up had been carefully applied and her clothes were relatively free of creases. Wearing an off the shoulder jumper with long sleeves, and an ankle length skirt in similar shades of grey, her outfit looked expensive. Stifle glanced at the girl's nails. Yep, manicured just as Dell had suspected. This girl would be no more use than a rolled up newspaper against a charging rhino.

Yet Dell had deliberated too long. Even as she turned to make her hasty escape, she felt the redhead's eyes on her. With one rucksack tossed over her shoulder and a small case dragged along behind on tiny wheels, the X-Man approached. Dropping the handle on the case, she held out her hand for Danielle to shake.

"You must be Stifle, thanks for coming to meet me." Stifle hadn't expected that, the girl had a Northern English accent. Suddenly she could see why Xavier had sent her and not someone with more of a physical presence. How like Xavier, to believe that words would be more persuasive than violence. Did he think she hadn't tried that already? Oh well, sometimes we must trust others to have a plan, Stifle reasoned. She took the offered hand, and was surprised by how warm it was.

"And you are?" Stifle queried, raising an eyebrow.

"Blaze." The girl replied, not smiling and meeting Stifle's eyes levelly. "Its just Blaze."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 03**

"X-Box 360!"

"PS3!"

"X-Box 360!"

"PS3!"

"Are they always this argumentative?" Matthew Cooper asked his boss' daughter Sam, aka Shockwave, dispassionately. They were sat on the windowsill of one of the scattered safe houses the Xavier School's pupils were using during the current crisis. Before them, the teenage boys Berserker and Cannonball were fighting over which games console got hooked up to the newly named rec. room's TV.

"Oh yeah." Sam agreed, looking up from painting her nail briefly. At seventeen, she was probably by now on America's most wanted list, Matthew thought sadly. Her father, a pro-mutant senator, was in custody for treason after supplying the X-Men with information. Keeping the President company in fact, as the USA was now under martial law until all mutant terrorists were behind bars. That vague description included not only the X-Men, but also all the kids from the school and most likely anyone else who ever owned up to being a mutant.

"How do the X-Men cope?" Matthew wondered aloud. Sam just looked at him.

"You're kidding right? I heard Cyclops and Iceman having the exact same argument last week…"

"Oh great." Matthew griped, watching as the argument got out of control and powers started to be used. "Is there any point in me getting involved?"

"No," Sam shrugged, "Whoever wins will be the one with the console that still works after they've destroyed the other." Shockwave changed the subject at that point, putting her dad's aide on the spot. "So what's going on with you and Blaze? You don't really want to be here with us kids. You only did this to help her out of a rough spot. And you were looking pretty friendly when we all walked in on you…"

"You don't believe me that I'd quite like the company whilst I wait for whoever's in charge of this coup to come arrest me for treason like your dad?" Matthew cut back, ever the politician. Sam shook her pretty head and pinned him with her green eyes. "Nothing is going on. Nor is it ever likely that anything will go on. That's Blaze's decision and I get the feeling its kinda final."

"You know why, don't you?" Shockwave consoled her friend. "Its 'cause you're too normal. I mean you've a good education, steady job, own home, prospects in your career, no addictions at least that I've been able to find out about, no messy break-ups, no nothing… Heck you're practically perfect. Blaze can't handle that, you'd make her feel like she was nuts all the time. Which by the way she is, so you're better off without her if you ask me."

"I don't know what's more disturbing Sam." Matthew said with a shake of his head. "The fact that you've been trying to find out if I ever had addictions or messy break ups, or the fact that you've concluded I'm practically perfect. Whatever happens, don't tell your dad that or he'll have me fired for leading you astray."

"Matt, if there's one thing I do not need help with, it's going astray!" Shockwave laughed. "You're talking to the girl who at fourteen nearly pulled Gambit just to wind Dad up!"

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"Aww, you givin' up already? You ain't lookin' so good!" Gambit called to the last few GRSO soldiers who were rapidly trying to retreat. "Maybe you should go for a lie down, eh?"

"Give it a rest Gumbo, you know they're only runnin' from your poor excuses for jokes." Logan sheathed his claws again and squinted into the dying sunset. "Now what? They're only gonna regroup and come back at us again."

"I t'ink maybe its time we follow the Professor's orders. What you reckon, take the jet to Mexico proper? Good a place to lie low as any."

"Sounds good to me. Let 'em take on Sabretooth when they get here next time. You never know, might just take care of two problems with one stone."

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Nightcrawler did his evening round with all the care and attention he ever did. The fact that he was not at the mansion, but instead in a monastery in a rough area of Indianapolis, only made it all the more important that the children felt settled and cared for. He closed the last door on the makeshift 'dorms' with woe in his heart. There would be no shortage of nightmares tonight amongst his young charges.

"Kurt, come look at this." One of the Brothers called softy to Nightcrawler, beckoning him to a window that overlooked the street two storeys below.

"There are people moving down there," Kurt whispered frantically, placing a three-fingered hand on the glass as he peered into the shadows. "Do you think they come for us, Brother Francis?"

"It seems most likely, Kurt. Just tell me what you would like the Brothers to do…"

"Nien," Kurt shook his head. "This is not your fight."

"We are sworn to help the innocent and the needy, Nightcrawler. We are prepared to defend the children." Brother Francis told the German mutant calmly. "Come, we can help you."

"Thank you," Kurt said gratefully, "You truly are men of God. May He bless you all for this…"

"I'd settle for Him keeping His faithful alive." Brother Francis wasn't quite joking, as he crossed himself sincerely. "But we will see…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**A/N:** With regards to the Rogue thing, itskinda complicated. Because Corrinth and I write to a shared timeline that isn't developing in any kind of order, Rogue's exit and eventual return have already been scripted. The result is I'm not in any position to use herin this particular set of stories. I have used her in other fics,here andthere.I guess if enough people wereto, say leave a review and challenge me to do it, I wouldn't be averse to trying to write a short Rogue-centric piece that ran parallel to the Shades series? Its really up toyou. If you'd like me to have a go, let me know. I've written fic for my reviewers before, its nice to write something on demand!

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 04**

"Nice car." Blaze offered politely, trying to make conversation as she and Stifle left the airport. The black Mini Cooper S was all shiny and new, with silver go-faster stripes on the bonnet and a silver Union Jack roof. The alloy wheels were the X-logo.

"Its yours, for as long as you're here." Stifle told her bluntly. "Xavier gave me instructions when he told me he'd send someone. There's an apartment in a block offDeansgate as well. I use it when I'm up this way, but you'll have more need of it than I will for now."

"I take it the Professor didn't tell you exactly who he was sending?" Blaze pried as the two women got into the car and fastened their seatbelts. Stifle was driving despite her just saying the car was for Blaze. "Why do I get the feeling you're a little disappointed?"

"Because I know what you're up against," Stifle snapped. "I wanted an X-Man, not a school teacher. These kids wont respond to reason…"

"So you want them whipping into shape?" Blaze argued hotly. "Or putting out of their misery?"

"Look, do you want taking to the apartment or what?" Stifle returned stubbornly.

"Take me to where the kids are. I want to see what I'm getting my school teacher self into."

"Fine." Stifle started the engine, gritting her teeth. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

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"Now what?" Logan asked Gambit as the jet touched down in Mexico and they stumbled out into the cool night air. All around them the chirruping of crickets echoed like an insect orchestra. There was a road over the rise, and Gambit had spotted something worth checking out when they'd passed over a few moments ago.

"You can do whatever you want Wolverine," he told the feral man with a shrug. "I'se goin' gettin' drunk."

With that, Gambit started off towards the distant neon lights of a remote bar. A few moments passed before he heard the telltale sound of footsteps trying to catch him up. Sounded like Logan quite liked the idea of a few beers himself. Remy paused and turned back, waiting for his drinking companion. Briefly he wondered what all the other X-Men were doing right now…

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"Ooh Stifle, long time no see…"

Dell had driven Blaze to an abandoned brick-built mill on Manchester's northeastern edge. They parked the car on a gravely patch of waste ground, half hidden by weeds. The distant orange glow of the streetlights and quiet hum of the M60 ring road were elusive in the early hours of the morning. On their way, they had passed streets of houses all dark with curtains closed. It didn't seem like anyone was awake, and Blaze had expressed a concern to Stifle that maybe the kids would be asleep too. Stifle had laughed it off shortly, claiming the kids were nocturnal. She had been right.

The door of the mill had long since been boarded over to stop the dregs of society from using it. Yet the wood was rotten, the nails that held it rusty. Stifle showed Blaze that it could be peeled away much like peeling an orange. They ducked inside, and entered another world. Sad looking furniture and half-rotten rugs were scattered over the mill's ground level. Boxes made of cardboard and wooden packing crates were mixed in between. Fairy lights that looked like they had been stolen off a house front at Christmas time were woven through the sagging beams above. A generator that looked like it had been put together out of an old car engine powered them as well as a few standing lamps. It would have been quite cosy, if it hadn't been for the stale smell of rising damp and the creaking of the floorboards that threatened to collapse with every step forward Blaze took.

The 'kids' that Blaze had been sent to help train were a gaggle of teens and young adults of various ages. They sprawled around the mill with cans of beer and bottles of cheap spirits. They didn't look amused that Stifle had just entered without knocking. The one who spoke out was a lad in his early twenties with strange eyes. It took Blaze a moment to realise his irises were purple. He sat on one of the sofas, leaning forward over a packing crate. In his hands he had a mean looking flick knife. He sat it with its point on the wood, and was spinning it casually in his hand. The others did not appear any more welcoming, all of them pinned Stifle and Blaze with accusing stares, deliberately trying to make them feel uncomfortable.

"Put the knife away Indigo." Stifle told the speaker throatily. He did as he was told, but slowly and carefully. The knife went into a pocket of his leather jacket as he stood and approached the X-Men.

"Have you pulled Stifle?" He asked nastily, looking Blaze over. He took a close sweep around the pair, brushing past Blaze violently, knocking her shoulder. "I don't think much of your girlfriend…"

"This is Blaze, she's one of the X-Men. The man I told you about, Professor Xavier, has sent her to help you with your powers." Stifle was relieved that the kids were acting to form. She glanced at Blaze, expecting her to be quaking in her boots. She was disappointed; Blaze actually had a small smile tugging at her lips.

"One of the X-Men eh?" A girl in her late teens asked, as the lad called Indigo went and sat behind her and began rubbing her shoulders with his fingers. Blaze presumed they must be a couple. "You don't look so hard."

"Can't be a very good one if she's got landed in our neck of the woods." Another girl pointed out, taking a swig of a vodka bottle and landing her feet on one of the cardboard 'tables'. "She's not even that much older than you, Indie…"

"Yeah, I think you're right." Indie laughed maliciously. "You know she looks familiar. Maybe I've been out with her mum or summot."

"She's a joke." A black lad contributed. "She can't help us. I'm out of here." He went to leave.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 05**

There was a whistle closely followed by a thud. The black lad who'd been trying to leave froze by the back wall of the mill. Indie's knife was buried into the brickwork an inch deep, and it hung there quivering as everyone gawped at it. Everyone but Indigo that is. He was frantically checking his pockets as if he could be seeing things.

"Indigo?" The girl he was sat with breathed, looking confused.

"Wasn't me Stellar," He swore, "Street, are you alright mate?"

"Yeah." Street grunted angrily, going to take the knife out of the wall. "But there's gonna be one less X-Man for that…"

His hand barely touched the handle when Blaze's eyes flashed for a second and the knife suddenly burst into flames. Street pulled away again, gasping. The gang were on their feet and coming forwards. Blaze put a hand out and twisted it clockwise. The fire peeled off the knife and came to her hand. Thus armed she turned to the gang and stared them down. After a second or two, they had all realised they couldn't hold eye contact with her for long.

"How did you get that out of my pocket?" Indigo challenged.

"Easy." Blaze replied. "I put my hand in and took the knife out. Didn't you notice? Or were you too busy trying to be all grown up and aggressive?"

"You're not a Yank." Stellar pointed out. "You from round here?"

"Once upon a time…" Blaze didn't want to go into details.

"So maybe I really did pull your mum once…" Indie tried to get control of the conversation back from Blaze. He failed.

"I don't think so. She was dead before you probably left primary school."

"How'd she die?" One of the littler kids that Blaze had hardly noticed before asked. Blaze didn't lie. "I killed her. When I got my mutant powers."

"What kind of freaking X-Man are you, picking pockets and killing your family?" Stellar asked frowning.

"One of a kind." Blaze answered with a straight face. "So you know who I am, who the hell are all of you?"

There were six of them. Stifle told Blaze later as they were leaving that when she'd first found them there had been at least twice that number. What had happened to the rest, nobody would tell. Clover was the youngest at fifteen and had powers that encouraged plants to grow. Stellar was nineteen, she wore her blonde hair in a straightened ponytail and had a thin fringe down to her eyebrows. She could produce starbursts of light when she clapped her hands together. Street was mildly telekinetic, but he could only move things that were lightweight. He was seventeen and had a lip piercing. Callum was a little older at eighteen and had a shorn head and broken nose. His hands were shaped more like a cat's claws, complete with light furring and retractable sabre-like claws. Carly was Stellar's little sister and a sixteen-year-old shape shifter. Their parents had thrown them out when the girls' mutations had been discovered.

Indigo was a puzzle. He'd gone into a sulk when the others started to respond to Blaze's questions about their histories and their powers. He turned all her efforts at including him back at her, twisting her words and insulting both her and Stifle with buckets of bad language. It took one of the girls to tell Blaze that he was twenty-one and their undisputed leader. He wasn't particularly tall, but he was nicely muscled and had a strong jaw. His light brown hair was gelled into spikes and he hadn't shaved too recently. If he wasn't so immature, Blaze thought as they headed in the car towards the apartment she would be staying in, he'd be a perfectly good leader for them. They all look up to him. As it is, I'm going to have to displace him to get through to the others.

"One thing's been puzzling me." Blaze asked whilst she waited for Stifle to unlock the door to the flat. The building was a new build complex, supposed to be the model of luxurious city centre living. The flat was on the top floor, overlooking the canals, Metrolink tramlines and the industrial Salford Quays beyond. "All the gang, including you, have tattoos. Why? Is it some kind of initiation?"

Stellar, Blaze had noticed, had starburst tattoos all down her spine and across her shoulders. Carly had Celtic knot work across the bridge of her nose and on her hands. Clover had daisy chains tattooed up her legs under the three quarter length pants she wore. Street had ethnic African designs around his upper arms. Callum had tiger stripes across his back, arms and even on his face, matching the markings of a real tiger. Indigo had varied markings all up the insides of his arms, but he'd not come close enough for Blaze to make sense of them.

"You'll find out." Stifle answered cryptically as the door opened. "Its open plan." She was talking about the apartment now. "Bathroom's through there, everything else is in here. Mind if I put the TV on? I've been out of it for a few days and I'd like to catch up with BBC News 24."

"That's not really a request is it?" Blaze answered to Stifle's back as she flicked the TV on. Sighing Blaze unpacked her suitcase as she always did. She unzipped it, turned it upside down and emptied her stuff all over the floor. Somehow even that didn't make this shell of an apartment seem more homely. She'd gotten soft, she decided. She used to be able to feel at home anywhere. Now she was pining after the mansion like some sort of homesick Girl Guide on camp.

"This morning's breaking news…" The anchorwoman spoke dramatically, "After the Prime Minister made his first statement following the arrest of the American President under charges of treason; another member of the American mutant faction known as the X-Men has tonight been taken into custody…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 06**

"What?" Stifle and Blaze both exclaimed at once.

"Bobby Drake," The anchorwoman tried to explain. "Know also as The Iceman…"

"Iceman." Blaze interrupted distractedly, "Its just Iceman." Stifle glared at her.

"Was arrested last night trying to cross the border into Canada with a group of an undisclosed number of mutant teenagers and children. He is the fifth member of the terrorist group to have been arrested since the United States declared a state of national emergency and imposed martial law. Their leader, Charles Xavier, is currently under house arrest in New York State, but is refusing to respond to questioning."

"When exactly were you going to tell me about this?" Stifle snapped as she turned the sound off on the TV.

"No! Turn the sound back on! Who else have they got?" Blaze shouted, lurching for the remote.

"What kind of teammate are you? You've abandoned your colleagues, abandoned Xavier!"

"I have my reasons and I'm not about to explain them to you!" Blaze spat as firebrands flew around her, making the air noticeably hotter in the air-conditioned apartment. "Turn the sound back on!"

"Make me!" Stifle argued. Blaze started to do just that, whipping out a fist full of fire to snap across Stifle's wrist so liberating the remote. Suddenly the redhead gasped, choking, her fire extinguished. "Lets see you try that with your powers knocked out! Can you guess what my mutation is yet?"

"Fine! I don't need powers to beat you!" Blaze decreed, launching a roundhouse kick at Stifle's midriff. The brunette blocked the attack and went to punch Blaze. Blaze professionally ducked under the punch and kneed Stifle hard in the stomach. As Stifle bent involuntarily, winded, Blaze brought an elbow down on the back of the other woman's neck firmly. Stifle fell forwards as Blaze sidestepped her and picked up the fallen remote. The mute button pressed, she turned all her attention to the broadcast.

"…still on the run from the US authorities during this turmoil. Their images have been circulated through the media to warn the public to stay away from them. They are to be taken as armed and highly dangerous."

A gallery of images Blaze recognised as from the night they had fought Juggernaut in New York were pasted on the screen. Her own picture was there, though not very flattering as she had damp hair and a painful expression on her pale face. Jubilee, Cyclops and Shadowcat were also brought up, along with Senator Hawley's daughter Shockwave. Wolverine and Gambit made up the full compliment.

"So they've got Bobby, Ororo, Kurt, Ilehana and the Professor…" Blaze mused out loud. "At least that they've told the press. You'd better be okay Rem, or I'm going to kick your damn Cajun behind to Antarctica…"

"Sounds like a fair incentive for him to stay out of trouble to me…" Stifle offered, rubbing the back of her neck as she went to sit on the edge of the white leather sofa. "He your boyfriend?"

"No." Blaze answered a little too quickly. "We just go way back. Sorry if I hurt you."

"Only my pride is dented." Stifle replied. "What are you planning on doing about all this?"

"Me? I don't know. The Professor was kind of hoping it would blow over, or that he'd be able to talk them round. The X-Men scattered to get the kids away, and are supposed to be lying low. We're not supposed to contact each other, just in case. I don't even know where Remy and Logan are, much less anyone else…" Blaze shook her head sadly. "There's nothing I can do, except what the Professor asked me to. Help these kids to control their powers before someone gets killed."

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"Hank! Help!" Jubilee screamed gave up her fight against the incoming GRSO soldiers and pelted down the university corridor as fast as she could.

"Move Jubilation!" Hank McCoy instructed, for once getting to the point straight away. Jubilee ducked into a doorway as Beast charged, roaring. The GRSO soldiers didn't even bat an eyelid. They fired tazers at him, though it took five or six in the giant blue mutant's flesh to drop his charge. He skidded along the polished floor, finally coming to rest at the feet of the front soldiers. They ignored him, recalling the tazer wires and adjusting their armour as the moved forward to attack Jubilee.

"Beast! No!" Jubilee wailed, raising her hands. "Now you are so in trouble!" The blast of her power knocked the first few men back a little, but as all of them were wearing tinted visors, the blinding light didn't stop them for long. A gas canister was thrown. Jubilee tried to run but slammed straight into a doorframe as the gas clouded her vision. She slumped to the floor and knew nothing else.

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Shadowcat patrolled the safe house boundary quietly, looking over her shoulder often and listening intently to the quiet night that surrounded her. Somewhere a twig snapped, making her jump. Subconsciously she readied her power, backing up against the wall of the log cabin in case she needed to escape. Why was it so dark out here? Apart from there being no street lights in the forest obviously…

"Kitty?" A child's voice called out softly. "You out here?"

"Hey Nina you had me worried there for a moment…" Kitty stepped forwards towards her charge, then realised that something was very wrong. A soldier had his hand on Nina's scaly shoulder, a gun by her skull. The rest of his team were aiming their guns straight at Shadowcat. Kitty had no choice. She raised her hands in surrender.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 07**

"So do you t'ink Vixen missin' me yet?" Gambit slurred, refilling his glass a little messily with even more tequila. He had no idea what time it was, only that they had been drinking for a very long time.

"What?" Logan asked, blinking as he tried to focus on the Cajun. "Hell no. Get yourself your own girl Gumbo, stop droolin' after mine."

"Okay." Gambit agreed amicably enough, glancing round the bar. He was disappointed to see there weren't very many women in it at all. He decided he'd not drunk anywhere near enough to go after the few that were about, and so gave up. "Maybe later, eh?"

"Sure." Logan nodded. "Don't blame you, traitor."

"Why you call me a traitor Wolverine?" Gambit slammed his fist down on the table a little harder than was needed, making some of the regulars glance over and Wolverine jump. "I ain't traitored on nobody."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." Logan tried to think of a good argument for why the Cajun was a traitor. He couldn't remember any, so decided to just take Gambit's word for it. "Okay."

"So do you t'ink Vixen missin' you yet?" Gambit pried as Logan drained another tequila.

"I dunno." Logan answered truthfully. "I hope so. What about you, you missin' anybody yet?"

"I got tequila, I got cards, I got a super jet t'ing parked over that hill, an' I got tequila." Gambit answered resolutely, waving a hand in the direction of the jet. "Gambit don't need much to make him feel at home, oui?"

"Tequila is good." Logan mused. "But what about your little sidekick girl…" Blaze's name had totally escaped him, so instead he waved his hand about in the air at about Blaze's height as if that would make his words clearer.

"Huh." Gambit shook his head and downed another tequila before answering. "Maybe, but you don't go tellin' her that for nothin', you got it?"

"I got it." Wolverine nodded to prove his point. The motion proved a little much for him, and he suddenly went green. Lurching to his feet he looked around frantically to see where the men's room had run to this time. "Back in a minute…"

"Take your time." Gambit told Logan's back cheerfully, refilling his glass. "Me an' dis tequila got some serious stuff to talk about…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Cyclops…" Dice moaned yet again as his teacher lay underneath Dr Grey's car, trying to tune something. The result was that Dice was talking to Scott's feet. "We're out of waffles already. Mika took mine and when I complained to Mrs Grey, she told me not to whinge and Mika is so much littler than me and…"

There was a burbling noise that cut Dice off short. Scott sat up instinctively and slammed his head on the underside of the SUV. He barely had time to realise what had happened before someone was grabbing his feet and hauling him out into the morning light.

"Scott Summers." A soldier addressed him, whilst another laid Dice on the grass of the Grey's front lawn. The boy was still breathing, but unconscious. Scott glanced around as more troops ran circles around the house armed to the teeth.

"No! Don't hurt them! They're just kids!" Cyclops tried to argue, tried to get to his feet. A soldier pushed him back down to his knees again with his weapon. "Back off!" Scott ordered, his finger going to the trigger on his visor. The soldiers didn't, so Scott blasted three of them four feet into the air. "I said back off! Let the kids go!"

A fight ensued that gave the Greys a chance to rustle three quarters of the children out the back door and away through the grounds of their rambling house. A few children were grabbed and thrown in the back of an armoured van like cattle. Scott put up a brave fight by himself. But the odds were overwhelming, and eventually he slumped exhausted to the floor, riddled with tazer wires and muzzy with gas.

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Blaze returned to the mill alone. Stifle had done a mysterious disappearing act some time that morning. It was now after lunch and Blaze felt a little more refreshed for some sleep and a meal inside her. The wooden panel peeled back easily enough, but when she entered the derelict building there was no one to be seen.

"Hello?" She called out, "Anyone home?"

"Maybe." It was Indigo, appearing from behind a pillar with his arms folded. "Keep it down, some of us are sleeping."

"Sorry." Blaze apologised, "Look Indie…"

"Shut up." Indie told her, coming to stand very close to her, backing her up against the wall. Blaze felt a sudden swell of fear, not that he would hurt her but that he might force her to hurt him. "What do you want from us? We don't need you here woman."

"I only want to help…" Blaze started, but Indie placed his hand over her mouth and leaned close to whisper in her ear. "No, you don't. I don't trust Stifle and I don't trust you. It'd be best if you just left. Now."

"Hi Blaze." It was Carly. Indie backed away as his gang member called out. "Are we starting lessons today?" Blaze stared Indie down for a second, before agreeing to the girl's request.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this. **A/U to X3!**

**A/N:** Apologies for the delay in posting, but I have had a berevement recently in my close family, and it has knocked me for six a little. Thank you to all the kind reviewers who flooded my inbox with kind messages during my brief break- you are all too kind. Lamby

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 08**

"If only you could see how friggin' daft you lot look." Indie had been disturbing Blaze's session all day. He was asking for trouble, trying to draw Blaze into a fight. She hadn't risen to the bait so far, but she was getting the feeling she'd get no peace until she did. It had been hard enough to convince the five students who were slowly coming round to her teaching methods to try this meditation they were working on. Indie telling them they looked stupid made all of them snap out of the trance and look at him instead.

"What do you want Indigo?" Blaze asked mock-patiently, getting to her feet and dusting down her jeans. The wound on her stomach she'd received off Juggernaut ached badly as she stood, making her wince and touch her belly cautiously.

"Are you alright?" Stellar asked quietly. Blaze nodded and turned her attention back to Indigo.

"I want you out. I don't trust you." His demands were simple enough, but Blaze wasn't about to give into them. When she told him as much, he changed tactics. "Fine, whatever. But if you're not leaving then you're going to have to do something for me. Earn my trust Blaze."

"What can I possibly do that would make you trust me?" Blaze argued. "You've already decided you hate me."

"You can start by stop acting like you're so much better than us." He replied, letting a sly smile wash over his face. Blaze was momentarily put off. He was quite good looking when he smiled. "Come out with us tonight, as one of the gang."

"I don't know…" Blaze started to object. Her friends were in trouble and whilst she could do nothing to help them, she didn't think going out and having a good time would be the most respectful thing to do. It was far better to stay home and be miserable.

"Yeah you do." Stellar liked the idea, taking Blaze's hand in hers and smiling warmly. The others also seemed to agree, putting Blaze on the spot. After all she was trying to get all of them to trust her, it would damage what she'd already begun if she turned them down now.

"All right." Blaze agreed. "I suppose it can't hurt."

"Cool." Indigo nodded, putting his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. "See you later then."

Blaze nodded, knowing getting rid of her for now was only the start of this lad's plans. He was up to something; she just couldn't work out what. Stellar gave her the instructions for where they would meet as she guided Blaze back outside.

"I think Indie's starting to like you." She said as a parting shot. "He's a bit of a div when it comes to new people, but he'll be alright in the end."

"You and him been together long?" Blaze asked in reply, opening the car.

"Me and Indie? Eugh! He's my cousin Blaze, that's gross."

"Sorry." Blaze grinned. Why did she feel relieved at that? "I'll see you later then?"

"Yep, later kiddo! This is gonna be a night to remember!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gambit came to on the floor of the bar. He felt like hell, his head was pounding, and he didn't really want to wake up at all. Unfortunately as he tried to slip back into his drunken coma, he discovered the reason he had woken up. Someone was pouring water over his face.

"Salaud…" He swore, trying to sit up. "What the…"

"So this is what the great X-Men are reduced to. A couple of drunks collapsed on the floor of a bar." A woman he'd never seen before was stood over him. She was an attractive blonde, all long legs and stiletto heels. Where had she been last night when all the dogs were out? Remy pulled himself up onto his elbows, then to the nearest chair by strength of will alone. Hang on, how did she know they were X-Men? Come to think of it, where was Wolverine?

Wolverine was just going through the same motions as Gambit, looking as bad as the Cajun felt. Other than the three of them, the bar was empty. So were all the tequila bottles on their table.

"Wake up, the pair of you!" The woman snapped, slapping Logan around the face hard.

"Hey lady, I don't know who you are but…"

"Ha!" The woman laughed shortly, as her form fell away and she became their enemy Mystique. "The last two X-Men free in the entire world, and you're spending your time drowning you sorrows? How perfectly pathetic!"

"What do you want?" Gambit asked exhaustedly. He had no patience for Mystique's games today. "What do you mean, the last free X-Men?"

"I mean all your teammates have been captured by General William Kincaid and his ridiculous goon army. As have most of mine. I was here to propose a truce, to break in to the facility and rescue as many as we could. I see now it's a waste of time…" With that she turned and strode back out the door, letting in a blinding wash of sunlight that made both men turn their faces away in pain.

"You think its true?" Logan asked Gambit eventually, after what had just happened had sunk in with them both.

"I don't know." Gambit replied. "But I know how we can find out…"


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this. **A/U to X3!**

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 09**

It took Blaze forever to decide she had nothing to wear to go out in. In a last minute dash around the Trafford Centre, she decided on black knee high boots with stiletto heels. She also chose a halter neck top in warm dark claret, and a short pleated black skirt. Then she got lost trying to find her way back to where she'd parked the Mini Cooper. She found herself strolling through a mock-up of a New Orleans French Quarter street above the food court. I wonder, she thought, on a scale of one to ten just how much Gambit would hate this? Blaze suddenly missed her best friend deeply. What was he doing right now?

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The house Gambit took Logan to was not exactly what Wolverine had been expecting. He'd thought any association of the Cajun thief would live in some crummy roach-infested pad. You know, genuine criminal stuff. Instead this detached house was verging on a small mansion. The wooden exterior walls gleamed with a fresh coat of sky blue paint, the lawn had been recently mowed, and a sprinkler chuntered away to itself happily. At the wrought iron gates Gambit looked up at the security camera whilst holding down the button on the intercom.

"Get the damn gates open before I blow 'em open Studd." Gambit griped into the speaker. Sure enough, the gate slowly eased itself open all on its own. Wolverine and Remy entered, then glanced behind them as the gate closed again.

"Spooky." Wolverine breathed. "You sure about this Gumbo?"

Gambit didn't dignify the question with a reply. He walked straight to the front door and let himself inside. The interior was as bizarre as the outside was stately. Solid marble floors were teamed with pale painted walls and fine drapes, which was all well and good. But the framed posters of punk bands going way back, the life-size cardboard cut out of Lara Croft and the horror film memorabilia everywhere didn't seem to make any sense. None of the doorways had doors in them, they were all arches, and it was though one of these that Gambit's acquaintance appeared.

Studd was a small guy in his late twenties and unfortunately confined to a wheelchair. His dyed black hair was spiked with gel and highlighted in snot green. He had chubby cheeks like a hamster and thick glasses in black frames. He wore a Green Day t-shirt and torn black jeans. But most startling was that Studd had maybe a hundred piercings or chunky rings or silver chains dangling from his person. His nose, eyebrows, lips and ears were all pierced numerous times. Sheesh, Logan thought, if Magneto were here he'd think it was his birthday or somethin'.

"Remy!" Studd grinned, flashing straight white teeth. "Great to see you my friend!"

"You too Studd, how's it goin' Ami?" Gambit seemed as genuinely happy to see this guy as Studd did to see him.

"Nothin' to complain about. What's happened to my favourite fire-starter? Don't tell me you pissed her off again?"

"We were kinda hopin' you could tell us." Logan interrupted. "We need some information…"

"And you are?" Studd inquired, turning cat's eyes on Wolverine. So this guy was a mutant after all. Logan replied arrogantly, folding his arms. "Its Wolverine, Bub."

"Right…" Studd didn't seem convinced. He then proceeded to blank Logan and address only Gambit. As he spoke, he led his guests into a large and airy kitchen. "I've not seen anything of you for ages Gambit, and I have to say I'm disappointed. I never thought it'd be Blaze that kept in touch and you that didn't."

"I consider my wrist slapped." Gambit drawled, going to the fridge and lifting three beers.

"Seriously man, can you even remember the last time you came to one of my infamous parties?" Studd continued to moan as he cracked open his can of lager. "It was in Madrid, centuries ago. Back when you and Blaze were the hottest item around, remember?"

"Studd shut up." Gambit said frankly, as Logan butted in again. "So you and Blaze did actually date then? Poor Firefly, no wonder she's screwed up…"

"Mind your mouth Wolverine." Gambit told him, gesturing with his beer can. "Studd, we bin told the X-Men all captured. Can you check for us?"

"It'll cost you." Studd pointed out with an impish grin. "I don't work for free Gambit."

"I know de price." Gambit returned. Blaze had used Studd not very long ago to keep tabs on someone. The cost had been her returning to thievery to do a job for Studd. The price Studd put on his services today would be the same, but Gambit could live with that. "If you can wait 'til after all dis gone blown over Ami?"

"I can wait." Studd agreed, and shook Gambit's hand on the deal. "This way gentlemen. Come into my cave of wonders…"

Studd's den was a windowless room packed floor to ceiling with technology mounted on black scaffold frames. Plasma screen TVs showed news feeds from different countries, though they were muted. Matrix style screen savers blanked out whatever the banks of TFT computer monitors were looking at. Studd went straight to a station that was linked to what looked like an old radio. He put on a pair of large headphones, covering only his left ear. Beginning to twiddle dials and punch keys, he got himself organised before speaking again.

""I happened on a channel these new GRSO guys are using for their Intel. If they've got your friends, that's how we'll find out."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 10**

With city centre parking rarer than dodos, Blaze caught the white and green electric Metrolink tram to Piccadilly Gardens where she was meeting the others. A little worried that she might have got her outfit wrong for hanging out with such a young crowd, she was relieved to see Stellar was wearing something very similar. The blonde girl seemed to have adopted Blaze and made a great effort to see that Blaze wasn't excluded from choosing where they were going. The sun was going downand the shimmering sky had the heathen hue of a woman on fire. They made an ominous looking group, pacing Piccadilly in a pack, quite obviously up to no good. Other punters crossed the road to avoid them, or were forced to weave their way around the gang, as Indie and co. refused to give ground to anyone. When they finally dropped down a few stairs into a dark and space-age bar, it was surprising that a fight hadn't broken out on the way.

"Get the drinks in mate." Indie ordered Street, who nodded and accepted a handful of cash. "What do you want Blaze?"

"Coke please." Blaze replied, tensing as she sensed yet another showdown between Indigo and herself.

"With?" Indie pressed, staring her down. "Vodka? Whisky?"

"Ice and lemon." Blaze smiled shakily. "I don't drink."

"Weirdo." Indie muttered, his sentiment echoed in the faces of the others. Street pushed past Indigo to the bar with Clover, both looking back over their shoulders and shaking their heads. Blaze refused to rise to Indie's insult. She had her reasons and they were nothing to do with these kids.

Other than that, the night was turning out to be much less hard work than Blaze had thought. Carly was a friendly drunk, hugging people she didn't know and telling them they were great. Stellar spent all her time running round after her sister. This wasn't easy for two reasons, one that Stellar was no less inebriated, and two because Carly kept changing her form when nobody was looking. Blaze had quite a good chat with the tiger-pawed Callum, finding out that yes, meat pie and chips in a tray with gravy was still readily available around here. But the conversation tailed off eventually and Callum left. Quietly weary, Blaze wondered if she could make a break for it yet?

"So this Professor Xavier bloke?" Blaze nearly dropped dead from surprise. She hadn't expected Indie to speak to her voluntarily, let alone politely and about the Professor. Yet here he was, placing his half drunk pint of bitter on the table and sitting down next to her. "He's a good leader? I mean; you feel like he understands you or summot?"

"Of course." Blaze answered sincerely. "Sometimes I think he understands more than he wants to, and not just because of his telepathy. He's a very astute man."

"Funny that innit? People, especially mutants, always looking for someone who understands them better than everyone else…" It was a rhetorical statement, so Blaze changed topic.

"Stifle mentioned that there used to be a lot more of you, but that you wont tell her where the others have gone?"

"She's right." Indigo agreed, frowning as he kept a weary eye on his gang as they milled around the bar and dance floor. He supped his pint eagerly as Blaze continued to question him.

"Why wont you tell her? I don't understand why you don't trust her after she's spent so much energy trying to help you." Blaze twisted in her seat to face Indie. He didn't return the gesture, and the intensity of his personality seemed to hum on the air.

"Would you trust someone who could sap your powers away at the snap of her fingers?"

"Trust her?" Blaze tread to lighten the mood a little. "If she promised to take my powers away, I'd be her slave forever."

"Not funny." Indie looked at her sideways. "Look I just know too much about Stifle to be comfortable around her. She's…complicated."

"You still haven't told me what your powers are Indie?" Blaze asked softly in her best you-can-trust-me-I'm-a-teacher voice. "Or how you got them?"

"I got into a fight with my brother." Indigo answered after a moment. He placed his hands palm down on the tabletop. If Blaze was surprised that he was being so forthcoming she didn't show it. All she did was make herself more comfortable, leaning on her elbow at a right angle to Indigo as he continued to explain.

"I punched him in the face, hard. He got this whopping purple mark like a big bruise. But it didn't go down and as far as I know it never went away. Worse than that though, when I touched him I knew just how much it hurt, the punch. I knew how annoyed he was at me and how upset that we were arguing in the first place. I was ill for days. I couldn't shake the feelings, his feelings. I lost it for a bit. I couldn't handle it, it was mental."

"You're an empath?" Blaze asked cautiously. Indigo just nodded, looking at his hands on the table.

"Tactile empath. I have to touch for it to work. Crap huh?" He glanced at Blaze, trying to make a joke of it. Blaze didn't smile, and Indie sank back into his glumness again. "But when I do touch people, I leave marks like tattoos on whoever I touch."

"So that's why everyone has tattoos?" Blaze asked. "You did them, trying to get to know them better. Trying to be an understanding leader?" Suddenly she warmed to him, seeing how in taking on other peoples emotions Indie left himself vulnerable. No wonder he was so untrusting and defensive all the time. "This happens every time you touch someone? It sounds like what Rogue does…"

"Not that I have a clue who Rogue is, but yeah it's every time." Indie answered, letting the conversation die gracefully. Almost casually he let the back of his right hand brush Blaze's elbow with a feather light touch. She jumped at the sensation. It was like being zapped with a tiny electric current. And yet it wasn't unpleasant. As soon as the contact was gone, she wished it wasn't.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 11 **

"Wow." Indie breathed in the seat next to Blaze. He was sitting very still and clenching his jaw. A frown crossed his face, the muscles in his neck twitching as he tensed involuntarily. Blaze watched him carefully. Her own nerves were on fire too, even after that slightest of contacts with the empath.

"What am I feeling?" She asked him, daring herself to put a hand down on the table for him to take. Indigo didn't look at her. Instead he took a few breaths, before turning her hand over so it lay palm down on the cool surface. He placed an index finger on her skin, below her wrist. Indie began making small circular movements with his hand. Blaze watched disbelievingly as out of nowhere a slight pattern began to appear.

It was a warm copper coloured motif, running in tiny lines like a henna tattoo. Beginning at the wrist, it extended under Indigo's touch to tangle between her fingers. The lightest tint grew darker and more definite as he did not take his hand away. Blaze had barely started to worry if this marking was going to be permanent when Indie broke the silence between them to quash her fears.

"Don't worry, I've got good at this. It usually only goes permanent if I want it to. It's weird 'cause I don't design the patterns. Its like they are already here under the skin. My powers just bring them out. Doesn't seem to matter if you're mutant or human either." His voice had taken on a trance-like tone and Blaze found herself mesmerised by the slow electric tingle underneath her flesh. Her hand moved in Indigo's gentle touch, seemingly of its own accord. Her eyes never left their fingers as they interlocked, caressing, letting Indigo work his magic.

"How do you do it?" He wanted to know. "How do you live with all this emotion? You're nowt like anyone else I've ever touched Blaze."

"I bet you say that to all the girls…" Blaze teased, trying to gather a modicum of sense back. "You've touched Stifle, but you still don't trust her. Why?"

"You're bloomin' obsessed with Stifle…" Indigo moaned. "She's a weird one. Her powers cancelled out mine any time I tried this. But we had a run in with…another gang. Stifle came to the rescue but she got knocked out. It must've knocked her powers out too, 'cause when I went to grab her out of the way, the dragons appeared on her wrists where I had hold of her. They wont go away now either. It was nuts, she got the tattoos, but she's just so cold inside. I can't trust someone who refuses to let themselves feel." All the while Indie was speaking he kept stroking Blaze's hand and wrist. To Blaze it felt amazing, and addictive. The more he touched her, the more at peace she felt. She hadn't felt this calm in a long time, if ever.

"I don't understand." She began softly, letting him take her other hand without a fight. "How are you making me feel like this? I'm…calm. I'm never calm Indie."

"I know, I can tell." He looked at her and their eyes met. "You're worried about all the secrets you keep. You don't have to. I don't get impressions of why you feel all this stuff. That's telepathy right? I just get the raw emotions. While I'm touching you they bleed off into me. It'll help you be calm for a while." The tattoos were still growing. They were a tangle of pale lines up to Blaze's elbows now. In the dim light of the club, she couldn't tell what they were supposed to be. Blaze pushed the thought from her mind. Indigo said they weren't permanent, so they weren't worth worrying about. When she had started to trust him, she didn't know. Blaze pushed that thought from her mind too, despite the fact that she never trusted anyone easily. Right now, it didn't matter.

"You still haven't answered my question." Blaze asked hoarsely, "What am I feeling?" For a moment she wished she hadn't asked. A shadow crossed Indigo's face, and she felt him almost withdraw his touch. Blaze suddenly decided she didn't want him to break away. That swell of almost childish emotion made Indigo smile. The sudden change from dark and brooding to this smiling young man took Blaze's breath away. He really was handsome when he smiled…

She didn't know how it happened. Maybe she initiated it, maybe he did. All Blaze knew was that Indie's lips were suddenly on hers and she was kissing him desperately. He tasted of the beer he'd been drinking. His mouth was warm and inviting. His kiss was hard, almost demanding like a challenge. Their hands were still tangled together, their bodies pushed close besides each other. It was insanity, but it was good…

They broke away to catch their breath. Insanely, Blaze downed the rest of Indie's dark brown beer without even thinking about it. They barely spoke to each other as they stood and moved for the exit. Blaze's head was swimming, her pulse frantic. She couldn't think straight. But then again she had no desire to think. They didn't say anything to the others, just hailed a black cab and left. The taxi driver was treated to a show straight out of the movies. Blaze didn't object at all as Indigo kissed and caressed her skin. He left her numb, and she didn't want it to stop.

Streetlights raced past outside the car windows. The one-way systems and traffic calming measures led them around nameless blocks of tall buildings. The wealth of the industrial revolution had shaped this city into a maze of narrow streets and broader main roads. Red brick and white stone monstrosities were equally grey from the smog of the city's industrial past. Georgian and Victorian architecture gave the city an eerie haunted feel in the darkness and the half-light. The cab blitzed past tiny parks with stunted shrubby trees, before glancing over the raised section of the Mancunian Way, past the universities and out of the city centre towards Blaze's flat.

Stumbling from the lift, drunk on each other, Blaze and Indie were almost a single entity. He pushed her up against a wall in the hallway to kiss her again. He was so rough Blaze could almost feel her lips bruising. She didn't care, she wanted more, and she was breathing so hard she could have been recovering from a near drowning. The flat's key was in her pocket. She unlocked the door without looking and entered backwards, dragging Indie in after her and letting the door slam shut.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 12**

"Merde." Gambit mumbled disrespectfully, as Logan interlocked his fingers behind his head in a gesture of amazed defeat. What Mystique had told them was true. The majority of the X-Men were captured. The only reason they had not been exterminated seemed to be General Kincaid's 'no martyrs' policy. Only when the mutant population was subdued and under control would the X-Men be executed.

"Most of the kids seem to have got away." Studd reported sombrely. "But there are men trailing them. Most of the GRSO soldiers seem to be looking for one person though, other than the two of you obviously. Who's Sam Hawley? Is she an X-Man?"

"No she's just a kid." Wolverine filled in. "Michael Hawley's daughter. He's a senator who was arrested with the President."

"Do you know where she's gone?" Studd asked. "We could try and get a message to her."

"Not a clue." Logan admitted. "I don't think we can help her. I don't even know which X-Man she left with."

"You never heard nothin' 'bout Blaze? They still lookin' for her too?" Gambit demanded.

"They haven't found her so far so…" Studd tailed off, before slapping himself on the forehead with the ball of his palm. "Doh! Paint me yellow and call me Homer! Aliases Remy, gimme Blaze's aliases!"

Gambit and Logan exchanged brief glances whilst Studd punched keys on another console. Gambit rubbed his brow with the back of his arm, thinking. Then he started to name names.

"Melanie Beckett, Catherine Harper, Erin Fisher…"

"Got her!"

"That was quick." Logan and Remy peered over Studd's shoulder at a screen full of coding and icons.

"I knew I knew that name on the bleeper list. See right here, Erin Fisher." Studd tapped the screen, swigging his latest beer.

"What's a bleeper list?" Logan wanted to know.

"Its just what I call the list if folk who set of airport metal detectors and stuff. Not all of them, but definitely the ones they pull out to talk to."

"Blaze was stopped by airport security?" Gambit had gone quiet, letting Logan do all the talking.

"Yeah but not for long. Its all here, they let her through after she proved it was the medical staples in her stomach that set off the alarm."

"That's our girl." Wolverine stated grimly with his arms folded. "Where was she headin'?"

"Manchester, England." Gambit spat, throwing his empty can at the wall. It made a dissatisfied crunch and slid to the floor. "Elle a souhaiter de morte! A quoi elle penses! L'idiote!"

"You lost us." Studd spoke for both him and Wolverine, without even batting an eyelid at the can-shaped dint in the plaster. "There's a scan of what was in her hand luggage, wanna look?"

"Yeah, whatever you can give us." Logan agreed. Studd obligingly typed in an over-complicated code, bringing up a distorted image.

"Somebody knows we're snooping in here guys." Studd told them. "I'd appreciate it if you could…"

"There!" Logan pointed to a greyish blob like a small, elongated oval. "Comm. device d'you think Gambit?"

"Looks like it, non? Studd if we tell you the frequency, any chance you can hack in?"

"Over that distance? Presuming she hasn't gone any further away or lost the cell? I can give it a go I guess, but it'll take time." Studd was already out if the airport security logs and into a screen that seemed to be tracking satellites.

"Look Gambit, what about all that the Professor said about not contacting each other?" Logan muttered to his teammate as Studd got to work.

"That to protect les enfants, non?" There no mention of Blaze takin' any kids wit' her." Gambit rationalised. "The Professor must've had a plan for dis. He wouldn't have asked her to go there for nothin'. Either way mon Ami, we don't know 'til we talk to her. Or you wanna sit around here jus' waitin' for the GRSO soldiers to track us down?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 13**

Something was bleeping, an incessant and irritating noise. Blaze came out of her slumber confused. She hadn't set an alarm clock. What was bleeping?

Things didn't get any clearer when someone in the large steel framed bed next to her shifted his weight. A muscular arm looped over Blaze's back to dangle a small silver orb in her face. Bewildered but fast coming round, Blaze took the comm. device and started to sit up. The loft apartment's cold air must have got to Indigo, as he dived back under the thick white quilt with a grunt.

With the comm. device in her hand, Blaze stood and moved away from the bed across the open plan room. It was still dark outside, as she clicked on a table lamp. Catching sight of her reflection in the sheet glass front of the room, Blaze had all the breath crushed from her chest. What had he done to her?

Still with the consistency of henna tattoos, the lines and designs Indie had brought out on Blaze's skin had reached a new intensity. Like tiny flames lapping over her skin, in places they were sharp like barbed wire. Again elsewhere the lines bloomed into delicate flowers like English roses. Blaze raised a hand to her brow, following the tattoo trial where Indigo had brushed a strand of her hair away. She followed the line down her cheek, under her jaw, down the side of her throat and further. As she looked at her reflection, there wasn't much of her body he had left unmarked.

The comm. device was still bleeping. Blaze drew on a dressing gown and pulled her hair loose of the collar, glancing at the clock. Then, finally she answered the call.

"It's half five in the morning, I'm trying to sleep, so this had better be good." She moaned exhaustedly.

"It twelve t'irty dis end Cherie, an' that make you five hours ahead. What the hell you doin' in Britain? That ain't no place for you Laura!"

If Blaze had needed a wake-up call, Gambit yelling at her down the phone was like having her head forcefully plunged in a bucket of ice-cold water. She had to catch the edge of an occasional table to stop her knees giving way. She felt a flush of guilty feelings as she looked at herself in the glass again. She'd been losing all sanity with Indie when Remy was in trouble…

"The Professor sent me…" She tried to explain, hearing tears in her voice. Gambit cut her off. "You should've told him no."

"Leave me be Rem, you're preaching to the converted." Wiping her misty eyes on the sleeve of her dressing gown, Blaze tried and failed to get her head together. Deliberately she turned from both her reflection and Indigo in the bed. Gambit and Indie were both right. Being back so close to the part of the world she had grown up in, where she had killed her parents, was too much. Too full of emotion for her to deal with… Blaze tried to focus on the present, confining her past to the dark core of her heart. But somehow the present was only slightly less upsetting, and she felt only slightly less guilty. "Where are you Remy? What's going on?"

"At Studd's. Look Petite, it over. There only me, you an' Wolverine left…"

"The others, they're not…" Blaze gasped.

"Captured an' bein' held somewhere. This Kincaid who runnin' all this be sendin' the X-Men out with a bang, all together. They on our tail now…"

"You have to get out of there!" Blaze demanded. "Remy you have to lose them!"

"We need to do somethin'." Gambit stated passionately, giving Blaze goosebumps. "There jus' ain't enough wit' Wolverine an' me to go up against…"

"You're not going up against anyone! Its suicide! Have you still got the jet?" Blaze argued efficiently.

"Yeah Blaze, I know where dis is goin' Cherie. You t'ink it any safer where you is? I t'ought the British Prime Minister was startin' comin' down hard on mutants too. I don't wanna go outta the fryin' pan an' into de fire here."

"Then you're scheming with the wrong girl." Blaze pointed out with a weak smile. "Look, I've one more X-Man here who'll be more than happy to help. Maybe I can rally some more back up too. Leave it with me, but please Remy just get out of the States."

"What 'bout the others?" Gambit asked. "We can't leave 'em. If Kincaid can't find us, he'll jus' kill 'em 'an be done wit' it."

"Then hope he's arrogant enough to think that he's getting close to catching us too. Maybe Studd can help misinform them. Just get out of there."

Gambit didn't say bye, the conversation was done so he just hung up. Logan and Studd were both watching him.

"Ahh." Studd sighed ironically. "Still a sucker for her, hey Remy?" He grinned and turned his wheelchair back to his beloved computers.

"She go for it?" Wolverine asked, knowing like Gambit did that the plan all along was to get Blaze to pull together some form of support for them to collect from a secure location, i.e. the UK. Gambit's careful manipulation of her would hopefully prevent the frequently temperamental and often emotionally insecure Firefly reacting too badly to news of the X-Men's total demise. As always, Gambit was trying to protect his former apprentice, and as always the strain was telling on him a little as he replied.

"Yeah." Gambit pocketed the enhanced handset Studd had given him in his trench coat. To Studd he said, "You know where we can get enough jet fuel to cross the Atlantic an' back?"

Studd raised a pierced eyebrow carefully. "You know its funny you should say that…"


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** Not making any money from this

**Knife in the Dark: Scene 14**

"Who was that?" Indigo came out of nowhere, taking the handset out of Blaze's unresisting fingers and putting it on the glass-topped table. The hand he kept hold of. A look of distraction crossed his face and he went ashen. "Doesn't feel too good, but then… Blaze you're a walking contradiction. Part of you is scared and upset, even guilty. But part of you is sort of excited or summot. What's going on?"

"It was Gambit, one of the X-Men." Blaze told him frankly, tugging her hand free. "Its over Indigo, or almost over anyway. There are only he, Wolverine and I left. If we can't find a way to free the others soon, they will be killed. But first Gambit and Logan have to lose the soldiers on their tail, so they are coming here."

"What?" Indigo didn't seem impressed. "Why?"

"Because I told them to. How can I get in touch with Stifle?"

"Look man, you're supposed to be sorting us lot out. Now you're abandoning us for your fancy American friends?" Indigo demanded. Blaze turned on him hotly.

"What now you want me to help? I thought you didn't trust me Indie, that you didn't want me here."

"Blaze…" Indigo wheedled as Blaze stomped off across the room. "Don't do this, not after last night. I'm trying, please, just gimme a go right?"

Blaze stopped dead before entering the bathroom. She let Indigo approach her and turn her in his arms. The touch of his hands was as soothing and electrifying as ever, and she heard herself sigh. This time he definitely initiated the kiss that became needy and demanding on both their parts.

"If you want me to help you…" Blaze mumbled between kisses. "You're going to have to tell me the whole story. What's happened to the rest of your gang?"

"In a bit." Indie promised, guiding Blaze back to bed. "In a bit."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What are you still doing up Shockwave?" Matthew asked softly, approaching the girl who sat on the windowsill and tucked up behind the curtain with her feet drawn up underneath her.

"Thinking. What are you still doing up Matt?" She replied without even looking at him.

"Thinking." He replied with a thin smile. "How would you feel about us all up and moving again? I'm not sure that the Cooper family's log cabin in the mountains is the safest place for us to be hiding out."

"There's no point. I'm not spending the rest of my life hiding." Shockwave spoke in an indignant whisper, trying not the wake the rest of the cabin's inhabitants. "Why hasn't the Professor done anything?"

"They must be holding him like they're holding the others Sam."

"Then why haven't Wolverine, Gambit and Blaze done anything?" Shockwave forgot to whisper. "If talking to these people hasn't worked, they should try something else."

"You're confusing them with the Brotherhood Sam," Matthew counselled, placing a reassuring hand on the brunette's shoulder. "Wolverine, Gambit and Blaze are the good guys, the heroes."

"The only reason Wolverine, Gambit and Blaze are heroes is Charles Xavier." Sam spoke with wisdom beyond her years, turning back to glare at the moonlight as if it had somehow offended her. "Without him, without the X-Men, they'll probably just go off the rails. And to be honest, that might be the very best thing that could happen right now…"

**The End**

**A/N:** Thank you so much to all my wonderful reviewers, especially Deus X Machina, you are too kind. See ya all next time in the thirdstory of four, Shades of Heroes:Slaves to the Cause, love Lamby


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